The 1850 masquerade locket I received for Christmas

Would you like to see the beautiful thing I was given for Christmas? This is a masquerade locket from 1850.

My friend Eve was in town this past summer on a buying trip for Maloy’s Jewelry Workshop, in Portland (highly recommended, by the way). I asked her to keep an eye out for a cameo pin for me, which she did. Meanwhile, in the set of photos she sent was this. I oohed and ahhed over it, but decided to stick to my purpose and just get the cameo pin.

My sneaky, delightful friend must have dropped my parents and Rob’s parents a line, mentioning that I coveted this.

Now… normally, I empty my stocking at the end of Christmas morning. Oh, I’ll grab the wind up toy off the top right away, and nibble at some chocolate, or the orange but usually it’s little things. Never The Big Present.

So Mom kept saying, “What’s in your stocking?” and “Have you looked in your stocking yet?”

I finally got the hint and pulled out everything. Down in the toe was a little wrapped box from my parents and Rob’s parents. I knew it would be something spectacular, but had no idea it would be this.